German Police Chief Arrested; Charged with Killing Jews in Poland

The police chief of Minden in North-Rhine Westphalia was arrested here today on charges of having directed the murder of 50 Jews in Poland during the Second World War.

The police official, Hermann Rohlfing, 60, was accused of having ordered the shooting of the 50 Jews near Lublin in the winter of 1943/45 when he was in charge of a special execution “commando” unit engaged in “eliminating” traces of Nazi mass murders during the retreat of the German troops. Rohlfing was arrested after he testified against another police official who was a member of an SS commando unit.

Three former Nazi storm troopers went on trial in Duesseldorf today, charged with complicity in the killing of 3,000 prisoners at the Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin during the Second World War. The three men are August Hoehn. 70, Otto Boehm, 70, and Horst Hempel, 50. More than 50 witnesses–former prisoners at the camp–will give evidence during the trial, which is expected to last 12 days.